American Chemical Society, Crystal Growth and Design, 11(7), p. 2305-2309, 2007
DOI: 10.1021/cg070104m
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A new synthetic approach using the Pluronic P123-assisted hydrothermal reaction of lanthanum phosphate and europium-doped lanthanum phosphate has been developed, which results in the formation of uniform spindle-shaped microarchitectures most probably by a self-assembly process. Our results reveal that the obtained spindle-shaped microarchitectures consist of several tens of aligned single-crystalline nanowires with smooth, well-defined facets and highly uniform morphologies. These well-defined spindle-shaped microarchitectures show greatly enhanced photoluminescence in these compounds when compared to their counterparts of disordered arrangements. A possible formation mechanism for these spindle-shaped microarchitectures is presented and discussed.